Happy Summer Solstice to all

[gumpus]

I think it's a very special time of year. My best wishes to all for a great summer.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Thanks, gumpus. Not everyone, though, considers the Summer Solstice to be “happy.” When Kathleen was still working, one of her colleagues considered the Summer Solstice to be the saddest day of the year, as the days would now becoming shorter for six months. I have to admit that I also feel a little melancholy thinking about decreasing daylight.

 

[frozentripper]

TY Gumpus... I've noted the location of the setting sun as in previous years, at it's furthest north point. We had 30C hot sunny weather today in Toronto and dry gardens, the thunderstorms mostly passing north. Today did feel sort of special in a way I really couldn't describe., maybe it's the long days. Happy solstice and summer everybody.

 

[dramey]

Today, I get to experience 21 hours of daylight. Tomorrow, we start losing daylight.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

one of her colleagues considered the Summer Solstice to be the saddest day of the year, as the days would now becoming shorter for six months.

By that logic, the winter solstice would be the happiest day of the year. I don't buy it. Neither did the Celts, Druids and various other pagan and religious societies. They all had a lot more festivals, bonfires and sex during the summer solstice than the winter.

That colleague was probably from the southern hemisphere or didn't believe in living in the moment.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time . . . . -- Macbeth


But don't worry about that. Enjoy today. -- MacGrady

 

[ppine]

The Summer Solstice has been a big deal with humans for thousands of years. There are monuments to it all of over the world. My favorite in this hemisphere has to be Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. The whole complex is oriented on the direct rays of the sun and different times of the year. In the other hemisphere, give me Stone Henge.

Give me that old time religion. I had planned a big 70th birthday party on the Summer Solstice but the virus ended that idea.

 

[gumpus]

Thanks, gumpus. Not everyone, though, considers the Summer Solstice to be “happy.” When Kathleen was still working, one of her colleagues considered the Summer Solstice to be the saddest day of the year, as the days would now becoming shorter for six months. I have to admit that I also feel a little melancholy thinking about decreasing daylight.

I never thought of it that way but I admit that having long days in Spring before the Soltice feels better since you know that the best is yet to come. I think you are getting 17+ hours of daylight (1-2 more than me) in the near term so that seems pretty enjoyable.

 

[gumpus]

Today, I get to experience 21 hours of daylight. Tomorrow, we start losing daylight.

That's a lot of daylight

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Here in Central Saskatchewan, we have peaked at 16 hours and 43 minutes of daylight. Visible light, the time between the beginning and end of Civil Twilight, is 18 hours and 20 minutes. Pretty darn nice, but not as nice as farther north.

I have to admit, that I actually enjoy the Winter Solstice, with the knowledge that increasing daylight is on its way!

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

The important question I have is whether Pinus lambertiana smells any different during the summer solstice than the winter solstice. We were amazed at the size of the Sugar Pine cones while traveling and paddling through the Sierra Nevada Mountains when living in San Jose, CA, and collected a bunch that we kept in a wooden barrel for many years while moving around the country.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

I’m sorry to say that I’ve never smelled Pinus lambertiana, but their cones are truly magnificent. Well worth keeping, Glenn! I had some in the early ‘80s that I set out at Christmas. I was renting out a room to help pay for the mortgage. While I was away visiting my father, the renter hosted a party and the participants burned most of my decorations in what must have been a very short-lived fire. I was not pleased. I was living in North Vancouver at the time, very far away from the nearest Sugar Pine.

 

[Canotrouge]

It is a special time of the year and up here people take it really seriously... cause from now on days are getting shorter again!!
0930pm working on the canoe rack, then a weekend at our backyard run!!
n.b. All pictures have been taken with my phone and in the right position... all pictures have been selected in order too... but they show up out of order and sideways.......

 

[gumpus]

Here in Central Saskatchewan, we have peaked at 16 hours and 43 minutes of daylight. Visible light, the time between the beginning and end of Civil Twilight, is 18 hours and 20 minutes. Pretty darn nice, but not as nice as farther north.

I have to admit, that I actually enjoy the Winter Solstice, with the knowledge that increasing daylight is on its way!

I suppose it's logical on the longest day of the year to spend time worrying about the shortest day of the year since I'm sure I think about long summer days during the winter solstice.

But this might be another situation where we can learn from our pets. My puppy appreciates any long day where we get to go paddling and play with sticks in the river and visit 2-3 parks in one day.

 

[ppine]

When I travel over the Sierra crest, sugar pines are the first thing I look for. We don't have them on the east side of the mountains.
A wonderful timber tree and beautiful to look out. They can get huge as in over 200 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter or more.
I have a collection of pine cones in my bathroom, and look at sugar pine cones every day.

 

[frozentripper]

Well, sugar pines... I have never seen any and this will be a highlight of any trip west for sure.

I can't get PaddlingPitt's summer solstice sadness comment out of my mind... for me, it's a time to look forward to cooler weather in late summer and fall and the color change that happens. Yesterday there was some cooler, rainy northern air coming in after a heat wave, fall-like, and yes, absolutely looking forward to cooler times..

The sadness of summer solstice reminds me of Sibelius' musical tones set in Spring Song, written about 1900... written about his unusual sadness during spring in Finland, where the frozen northern landscape struggles to come to life, slowly, after winter, trees reaching up to the sky for the first warm rays of sunlight.

Sibelius being a perfectionist, eventually wrote a happier, warmer version to the cool blue notes of the original... for me, the colder version seems more northern, and the way seasons change in northern landscapes.

Anyway, here's the original blue version for anybody wanting to give it a listen... often played on the first day of spring on classical radio. Spring equinox and summer solstice... best recorded by a Finnish orchestra who know their northern landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqYqAhnKGS0

 

[ppine]

"The best days are the hardest days, don't you worry anymore. Because when life looks like easy street, there is danger at your door. "
Robert Hunter

 

[gumpus]

Well, sugar pines... I have never seen any and this will be a highlight of any trip west for sure.

I can't get PaddlingPitt's summer solstice sadness comment out of my mind... for me, it's a time to look forward to cooler weather in late summer and fall and the color change that happens. Yesterday there was some cooler, rainy northern air coming in after a heat wave, fall-like, and yes, absolutely looking forward to cooler times..

The sadness of summer solstice reminds me of Sibelius' musical tones set in Spring Song, written about 1900... written about his unusual sadness during spring in Finland, where the frozen northern landscape struggles to come to life, slowly, after winter, trees reaching up to the sky for the first warm rays of sunlight.

Sibelius being a perfectionist, eventually wrote a happier, warmer version to the cool blue notes of the original... for me, the colder version seems more northern, and the way seasons change in northern landscapes.

Anyway, here's the original blue version for anybody wanting to give it a listen... often played on the first day of spring on classical radio. Spring equinox and summer solstice... best recorded by a Finnish orchestra who know their northern landscape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqYqAhnKGS0

Very nice. Thank you for posting frozentripper. The music does not seem so dark to me...more like cautiously optimistic. We've also had some extremely enjoyable weather following some unusually hot weather. Folks in the neighborhood are talking about it; it's either perfect or close to it. Temps are actually normal for a change.

I've also been pondering paddlinpitt's comment but I'm not buying in to the arguments that spring and summer are depressing. For me the week following summer solstice is magnificent but the week following winter solstice is still depressing.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Let me be clear. It was Kathleen’s colleague, not me, that said the summer solstice was the saddest day of the year. I thought it was an interesting comment, and thought I would share. I love the long days of summer, which is why I specifically wrote, that the long days were “pretty darn nice.” I felt a little melancholy to see them go, because I love them so much. That is also why I am happy when the winter solstice arrives, because the long days are returning. But, if I am to be forever known as the grinch of summer, so be it. I can live with being falsely accused.